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Building Thinking Classrooms?

Sparked by observing teachers struggle to implement rich mathematics tasks to engage students in deep thinking, Peter Liljedahl has translated his 15 years of research into a set of 14 optimal practices for thinking that create an ideal setting for deep mathematics learning to occur. When combined, these unique research-based practices create the optimal conditions for learner-centered, student-owned deep mathematical thinking and learning, and have the power to transform mathematics classrooms like never before.

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Building Thinking Classrooms | Teaching Practices for Enhancing Learning Mathematics

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Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics helps teachers implement 14 optimal practices for thinking that create an ideal setting for deep mathematics learning to occur.

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Ohio believes that all students deserve to be engaged with high-quality, standards-aligned instruction which includes access to high-quality instructional materials (HQIM).

High-quality instructional materials (HQIM) support educators with:

Standards-aligned instructional content.

A coherent scope and sequence for grade-level lessons and unit plans.

Evidence-based instructional strategies and embedded formative assessments that support data-driven instruction.

Educative materials that provide implementation support for educators to ensure all students' learning needs are met.

The time a child spends in school is precious and should ensure all aspects of a child's well-being are addressed, including the physical, social, emotional and intellectual aspects. As part of a focus on increasing student learning, the Ohio Department of Education & Workforce believes in providing support for building leaders and teachers to locally review, select and implement high-quality instructional materials. The Office of Learning and Instructional Strategies is committed to leading this work.

Teachers are among one of the most powerful advocates for our children. The instructional materials teachers choose to expose their students to matters. Now more than ever, teachers deserve great instructional materials, so they can focus on doing what they do best: getting students excited to learn. There is mounting evidence that shows when teachers have high-quality instructional materials, they can focus their time and energy on addressing the individual needs of each student.

District Spotlight

Materials Matter in Mt. Healthy City Schools

"The Curriculum Support Guide has forever changed how Mt. Healthy will do curriculum and adopt and implement materials." - Jana Wolfe, Executive Director of Teaching and Learning, Mt. Healthy City Schools.

Ohio Curriculum Support Guide

The Department partnered with Instruction Partners to develop the Ohio Curriculum Support Guide. Research shows that providing teachers with high-quality instructional materials is an effective strategy for increasing student learning. However, teachers need much more than a box of new materials to ensure great teaching and learning take place. They need support from a team of leaders who know how to select, prepare for and support the use of great materials.

Through this partnership, a five-part webinar series was created to support district leaders and members of school-based teams with curriculum adoption and implementation using the Ohio Curriculum Support Guide.

Additional Resources

As a local control state, districts and schools in Ohio make important decisions regarding instructional materials. There are growing efforts to support this decision-making process.

Ohio Materials Matter:

Provides expert curriculum reviews through EdReports, which consists of K-12 English Language Arts, Math and Science instructional materials.

Assists with determining whether instructional materials are aligned to Ohio's Learning Standards in English Language Arts, Mathematics and Science.

Developed in partnership with INFOhio and EdReports.

The Ohio Improvement Process (OIP) is a system framework of collaborative team protocols to analyze data, research aligned improvement strategies, implement and monitor strategies, provide feedback to teams and determine effectiveness based on performance and implementation data. Educators will find resources within the Continuous Improvement Toolkit.

The Learning Management System provides free courses and professional development on important state education initiatives for educators who have active or pending, Ohio, prekindergarten-12, Department-issued licenses or permits and who have fully set-up their OH|ID account.

Frequently Asked Questions

Read the Frequently Asked Questions about High-Quality Instructional Materials for more information. Please contact OHMaterialsMatter@education.Ohio.gov with additional questions or comments.

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Ohio believes that all students deserve to be engaged with high-quality, standards-aligned instruction which includes access to high-quality instructional materials (HQIM). High-quality instructional materials (HQIM) support educators with:  Standards-aligned instructional content.  A coherent scope and sequence for grade-level lessons and unit plans.   Evidence-based instructional strategies and embedded formative assessments that support data-driven instruction.  Educative materials that provide implementation support for educators to ensure all students' learning needs are met.

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Home - OpenSciEd

Home - OpenSciEd

Our curriculum fosters deep, engaging science learning and is the only curriculum designed for the NGSS that has had every unit rated as quality -and it's freely available to anyone.

MAKING HIGH QUALITY SCIENCE EDUCATION AVAILABLE TO ALL STUDENTS

TEACHERS TESTED & APPROVED

GROWING NETWORK OF TEACHERS

What Educators Say

"My students have begun to realize they have the power and knowledge to plan and investigate how the world works around them."

-Kym Whitney, 7th Grade Teacher

"My students are more excited about science than ever, and they're connecting what they're learning to their lives and experiences."

-Megan Euler, 7th Grade Teacher

"OpenSciEd lessons are a lifesaver. They are standards-based, easy to implement, and, best of all, my kids LOVE them!"

-Taylor Halliday, Gifted Intervention Specialist

Adopt the Curriculum.

To make the shifts in science education that today's science standards demand, we've created high quality instructional materials paired with transformative professional learning. Tied to our mission of providing high quality science learning for all students, we also have partnered with a variety of organizations that can offer additional materials and support to ensure the long-term success of your implementation. Learn more about the different paths for adopting our instructional materials.

Learn More

Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

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OutSCIder Classroom is a web-based video series that teaches students science and environmental stewardship through our National Parks! Host Chris Anderson hits the trail to learn about the world around us and meets some awesome scientists along the way. If you're passionate about the outdoors, learning science, or just like having fun, then join us as we explore our amazing public lands!

Free Resources for Educators & Caregivers

Engaging discussion guides and hands on activities to pair with our videos; aligned to national science standards.

Professional Development

Support in bringing OutSCIder content into your classroom

Bring our host and curriculum developer, Chris, to you! We offer virtual and in-person sessions to help you integrate our high-quality content and lesson plans to impact student learning

Outreach Consulting

Support for Researchers looking to share the broader impacts of their work

We work with you to customize a public-facing outreach program to fulfill grant obligation and raise awareness of your research in an engaging way

Hamilton County ESC

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OutSCIder Classroom is a web-based video series that teaches students science and environmental stewardship through our National Parks! Host Chris Anderson hits the trail to learn about the world around us and meets some awesome scientists along the way.

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Join host Chris Anderson as he explores our incredible National Parks and meets awesome scientists, all while learning how the world around us works! If you’re passionate about the outdoors, learning science, or just like having fun, check out all our FREE videos and classroom resources! This project is made possible by: -National Geographic Society -Hamilton County ESC
-OutSCIder Productions Created and Hosted by Chris Anderson
Produced by Chris Anderson and Paul Smith
Edited by Chris Anderson, and Michael Pikar Directed and filmed by Mary Ellen Finnegan
Original music composed by Blake Sutton A special thanks to our partner parks: -Death Valley National Park
-Sequoia National Park
-Saguaro National Park -Grand Canyon National Park
-Arches National Park

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Science Education Council of Ohio - Home

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"Essential reading for teachers, education administrators, and policymakers alike." - STARRED Library Journal , Wexler brings together history, research, and compelling characters to pull back the curtain on this fundamental flaw in our education system--one that fellow reformers, journalists, and policymakers have long overlooked, and of which the general public, including many parents, remains unaware.

The untold story of the root cause of America's education crisis

It was only after years within the education reform movement that Natalie Wexler stumbled across a hidden explanation for our country's frustrating lack of progress when it comes to providing every child with a quality education. The problem wasn't one of the usual scapegoats: lazy teachers, shoddy facilities, lack of accountability. It was something no one was talking about: the elementary school curriculum's intense focus on decontextualized reading comprehension "skills" at the expense of actual knowledge . In the tradition of Dale Russakoff's The Prize and Dana Goldstein's The Teacher Wars The Knowledge Gap isn't just a story of what schools have gotten so wrong--it also follows innovative educators who are in the process of shedding their deeply ingrained habits, and describes the rewards that have come along: students who are not only excited to learn but are also acquiring the knowledge and vocabulary that will enable them to succeed. If we truly want to fix our education system and unlock the potential of our neediest children, we have no choice but to pay attention.

But

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The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America's Broken Education System--and How to Fix it

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The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America's Broken Education System-and How to Fix it [Wexler, Natalie] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America's Broken Education System-and How to Fix it

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Contains full-text for hundreds of science magazines, journals, encyclopedias, and reference books. Topics include biology, chemistry, earth and space science, environmental science, health and medicine, history of science, life science, physics, science and society, science as inquiry, scientists, technology, and wildlife. Also provides access to a vast collection of images, helpful research guides, and science experiments.

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Amazon.com: Ambitious Science Teaching: 9781682531624: Windschitl, Mark, Thompson, Jessica, Braaten, Melissa: Books

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740 589-9941

lindsay.rist@dnr.ohio.gov

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Ohio’s Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science | Ohio Department of Education

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Ohio educators, many of whom engage daily with Ohio students, drove the process to make improvements to Ohio’s Learning Standards for Science and Model Curriculum as part of a periodic review. In many cases, the changes reflect instruction already taking place in Ohio’s classrooms. The clarification…

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Gallia-Vinton Science Network October 15

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The Ohio STEM Learning Network is committed to helping the State of Ohio inspire and train the next generation of innovative leaders.

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Statewide Design Challenge - Ohio STEM Learning Network

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Statewide Design Challenge Ignite innovation with the statewide design challenge The Ohio STEM Learning Network’s annual design challenge invites students from across the state to tackle real-world problems through hands-on, […]

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The Ohio Academy of Science empowers student-led research through STEM projects. Explore our programs become a sponsor, judge or mentor, or participate in our local or state-wide events using ProjectBoard.

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Finding elementary science curricula that is directly aligned to Ohio's Science Learning Standards is very challenging. Many published curricula say they are aligned to the Ohio standards but they still include topics and information that does not directly align. This leaves teachers to filter and make decisions

about what to teach and what not to teach!

Ohio Science Explorers has been developed by an Ohio science educator FOR Ohio teachers. All the lessons and activities in this curriculum are directly aligned to the Ohio grade level standards for science. There is no deciding what not to teach.

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Finally...An elementary science currriculum developed for and aligned to Ohio Science Standards!! Finding elementary science curricula that is directly aligned to Ohio's Science Learning Standards is very challenging. Many published curricula say they are aligned to the Ohio standards but they

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Menu Close Resources Local Regional Regional Science Day Regional Science Day Contacts Regional Judges State Preparing for SSD State Science Day Timeline State Science Day Qualifying and Registration State Science Day Celebration 2024 State Science Day Celebration 2023 State Science Day Celebration Sponsorships Students Project Board Alumni Resources Local Regional Regional Science Day Regional Science

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NOAA's Teacher at Sea Program offers educators a unique opportunity to join NOAA scientists aboard an ocean research vessel as a member of the science team.

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Ohio Learning Standards for Science Feedback Form

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Ohio Learning Standards for Science Feedback Form

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Presidential Awards of Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching

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Presidential Awards of Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching

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The Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) are the highest national mentoring award bestowed by the White House.

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Share the Strategy and Source RQI Our materials are available under a Creative Commons Sharealike license. To comply with this license, you must include the following language on all materials you use, share, adapt, or create: "Source: The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) was created by the Right Question Institute (rightquestion.org)." As long as you include this source language, you are welcome to use, adapt, and share our strategies and materials for noncommercial use. You may also create new materials that reference the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) and/or other Right Question Institute strategies as long as you include the source language above. If you are interested in sharing RQI's resources for commercial purposes you must contact us by selecting the "Permission for Use" option on the contact form.

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Share the Strategy and Source RQI Our materials are available under a Creative Commons Sharealike license. To comply with this license, you must include the following language on all materials you use, share, adapt, or create: "Source: The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) was created by the Right Question Institute (rightquestion.org)."

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Teaching Energy Across the Sciences K-12

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Teaching Energy Across the Sciences K-12

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Teaching Energy Across the Sciences, K-12 (e-book) | National Science Teaching Association

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It’s a simple fact: Students will learn about energy more effectively if teachers present it consistently in all grades and across all scientific disciplines. This book gives you the strategies and tools you need to help your students understand energy as a concept that cuts across all sciences. The result will be a clear lens for interpreting how energy works in many contexts, both inside and outside the classroom. Teaching Energy Across the Sciences, K–12 is accessible to teachers with varying science backgrounds. Its three main sections cover these essential topics: 1.	Understanding why energy is such an important concept, what students need to know about it, and how to address the concept with the Next Generation Science Standards in mind
2.	Using five central ideas about energy to teach the subject consistently across the life, physical, and Earth and space sciences, as well as in all grades
3.	Providing the professional development and systemic support teachers need to adopt this book’s approaches “The NGSS firmly assert that we can no longer accept teaching energy in a way that does not show students how energy ideas are connected,” editor Jeff Nordine writes. Simply and clearly, this book shows you how to make those vital connections.

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Explore ANIMAL INSIDE OUT | Bossard Memorial Library

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American Modeling Teachers Association - Transforming STEM Education

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The American Modeling Teachers Association (AMTA) is a professional organization of teachers, by teachers, and for teachers who use Modeling Instruction(TM) in their Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) teaching.

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Reading and Writing Like a Scientist EdWeek Article

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Reading and Writing Like a Scientist EdWeek Article

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Allycia Uhrhan's 6th graders at Truman Middle School in St. Louis started their field-science week collecting data on fish hatching at nearby Forest Park. But the trip really started the prior week, in English class, where teacher Kristina Kohl had students dig into history and science articles about the park to pair with Uhrhan's ecology readings. Once the students returned, they wrote up lab reports and reflections on their field day in both classes.

This interdisciplinary approach underscores something important about communication in the sciences: Scientific progress does not take place in a vacuum. Researchers regularly discuss avenues for exploration, present and argue about their findings, and present their conclusions to the public.

But many science classes don't fully give students the specific literacy skills needed to understand and make scientifically reasoned arguments. And science itself, as a discipline, demands the use of specific kinds of reading-related tools: understanding scientific vocabulary and language; interpreting data from text, graphics, and charts; and making (and critiquing) scientific arguments.

"The texts that students use in many science classrooms are not adequately complex," said William Folk, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Missouri and co-director of the science-literacy project. "Textbooks will almost always present a concept as a series of facts, without anything like the complexity that actually occurs in the literature and without the process by which claims have to be justified with evidence in science."

Uhrhan's work is the result of Folk's National Institutes of Health-funded project, Linking Science, Math, and Literacy for All Learners, designed to improve middle school science literacy. For the past seven years, University of Missouri researchers have worked with 50 local English/language arts, science, and special education middle school teachers to co-develop interdisciplinary lessons in science literacy.

A collaborative approach to reading science texts

Uhrhan said that she assigned relatively few writing tasks in her class before the program-partly because the materials didn't support it and partly because, like most content-certified teachers, she didn't get a lot of reading training.

"Our science [textbooks] had short little sentences, and we kind of avoided reading altogether," she said, "because we, as science teachers, didn't get that training of how to teach kids how to decode and break this stuff down. So, it kind of scared us."

Teachers participating in the project reviewed science units throughout the year and developed lessons that could be used in science and ELA classes. Students might tackle reading and annotating journal articles and learning new vocabulary in English, while collecting data, conducting experiments, and writing up the results in science class.

In a two-week unit on vaping, for example, Kohl's class analyzed the persuasive tactics used in e-cigarette advertisements, while Uhrhan's class studied nicotine's effects on the circulatory, nervous, and respiratory systems.

"With [narrative] stories, it's a bit easier for students to understand because it's relatable, but some of the concepts in science are above the heads of a lot of people who are reading them. So we have to break down nonfiction texts into readable segments and strategies of how to decipher what these words mean and how they relate in context," Uhrhan said. "We've gotten to work together as an ELA teacher, a science teacher, and special ed. teacher to get all three perspectives of how we could break that down to kids."

Students learn to master the text structures in science

What makes scientific reading different from narrative or informational reading in English class? While students generally learn the common structures of narratives-plot beats, character arcs, rising and falling action, for example-they often don't learn to break down the specific structures common in scientific writing, such as identifying claims and methodology, Uhrhan said.

Students also often get confused about additional text features in science, said Katie Woepke, a special education teacher for St. Louis County who helped develop the interdisciplinary lessons at Truman. Those features include reading graphs, diagrams, and tables in the context of the larger text.

"If your brain doesn't realize that those text features are there to help you," Woepke said, "then they're just more words on the page, and kids get discouraged."

While assignments in both ELA and science expect students to advance their written arguments using claims, evidence, and reasoning, teachers learned to develop a common structure for teaching argumentation across different subjects-helping students understand, for example, the differences in the kinds of evidence that can be used.

"Each discipline has different norms for the types of argumentation and the types of evidence that can be used," said Folk, the University of Missouri professor. "For social sciences or literature, the types of evidence will differ dramatically from what is acceptable and what is used in physical science. Nevertheless, making a claim based on evidence and reasoning in order to be able to communicate and justify the claim are shared practices between the science and English/language arts standards."

It also meant developing scaffolds for students with disabilities and English learners. For example, teachers created flip books of key vocabulary and "scavenger hunts" for different structures within a scientific article. "These articles are in-depth, you know. But there's no reason these students with disabilities can't get the same information and understand it," Woepke said.

Building science literacy can improve learning gaps

Building up literacy skills in science also could be critical to helping students succeed across subjects, according to Sue Kowalski, a senior research scientist at the assessment group NWEA, who has studied academic recovery in schools.

Nationally, learning gaps have opened for middle school students in reading, math, and science since 2019. Overall, NWEA has found larger gaps in reading and math-more than twice as large as in science, but the gaps have widened for some student groups.

For example, Hispanic middle school students performed on average five months behind their pre-pandemic scores in science in 2021; that gap grew to 11 months in 2024. Black middle school students remain 13 to 15 months behind their average science performance in 2024 on the NWEA's Measures of Academic Progress, the most commonly used benchmark assessment in reading, math, and science.

"What we're seeing is that there are important leverage points because of how science and literacy are so synergistic," Kowalski said. "It's not about choosing science or choosing reading. It's about creating space in literacy education that's not simply narrative text but explanatory, informative literacy skills that are useful in comprehending science texts."

That's what Jeannie Sneller, a 6th and 7th grade science teacher at South Callaway Middle School in Mokane, Mo., has begun doing. Before joining the University of Missouri program, Sneller said her students weren't reading and writing enough in class to develop the stamina needed to tackle real scientific articles-or even in-depth questions on state science tests.

"When I first started, I taught the way I was taught: That is, let's read some of the textbook, and we'll write all the vocabulary down, take these notes, and then we'll do some labs to back it up-readings, notes, labs, readings, notes, labs," Sneller said. "But I found if it came to reading anything longer than a few sentences, they would just check out. They would only write one sentence, or not even a full sentence, and I thought, 'Well, they can't express to me what they're learning in writing.' "

Now, Sneller's students work their way through scientific articles on sound waves, online videos about food systems, and charts of global data on pollinators as part of a unit on honeybees.

"It's really helped me revolutionize the way I teach," she said. "We step away from that textbook, ... and that's made a big difference, because the kids are more engaged. They understand the content better because they've seen the information in so many different ways."

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English and science teachers in Missouri middle schools collaborate to help students tackle complex scientific texts.

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https://ohiodnr.gov/discover-and-learn/education-training/environmental-education/student-wildlife-research-symposium

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The News Literacy Project works with educators and journalists to give students the skills they need to discern fact from fiction and to know what to trust.

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American Modeling Teachers Association - Transforming STEM Education

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The American Modeling Teachers Association (AMTA) is a professional organization of teachers, by teachers, and for teachers who use Modeling Instruction(TM) in their Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) teaching.

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Hundreds of scientific articles. Written for kids. Approved by scientists.

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The News Literacy Project works with educators and journalists to give students the skills they need to discern fact from fiction and to know what to trust.

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The News Literacy Project works with educators and journalists to give students the skills they need to discern fact from fiction and to know what to trust.

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School District (if you do not work in a school district, you may indicate that):

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Achievethecore.org :: Instructional Practice Guide: Academic Word Finder

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This guide is a practical tool that teachers, and teacher-trainers, can use (and re-use!) in order to build fluency with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

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Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

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Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

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Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking

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Buy Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking on Amazon.com ✓ FREE SHIPPING on qualified orders